Health Benefits Of Starting School Later

In the article, “Early school starts can turn teens into Zombies’”, Stephen Ornes emphasizes how schools that start early can deprive students’ health. One study shows that early school start times can disrupt the consistency o the body’s circadian clock, which can cause health problems such as depression and obesity. Another reason for sleep deprivation is that the body goes through changes that include their sleeping process. The hormone, melatonin, is secreted later in the night, which makes the circadian cycle shift in a later time. These aspects could lead to troublesome symptoms such as lack of attention on the road. However, there are solutions to this problem. Students intake stimulants

It is a well known fact that teenagers in general need more sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation: “[teenage sleep] is as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage stress of being a teen.” When schools start as early as 7 o’clock, it puts students health at risk. Adolescents already have a natural shift in their internal body clock, or circadian rhythm when it comes to sleep. Puberty allows this to happen, causing a “sleep phase delay” of about two hours. When teens can't fall asleep until late and school starts so early, they aren't getting nearly enough sleep. Lack of such, according to CDC, makes the individual

Every morning students in the United States feel the effects the early start time many schools have implemented. These students are lethargic and inattentive, due to the lack of sleep they are getting every night. Typically, adults see these characteristics as the result of teenagers staying up late watching Netflix or using their cell phones. Many reputable organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have researched this problem and found that teenagers are lacking in sleep due to biological and physiological changes that are occurring within their brains. These shifts cause students to be more inattentive and reckless, resulting in lower grades, tardiness, and higher rates of car

As a result of a changing body and mind, adolescent sleep cycles have different needs than those of adults or younger children. As a matter of fact, Biologically, sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence -- meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm (“Teens”). In addition to biological change in sleep patterns, teenagers also tend to have eccentric sleep cycles. Obtaining less than healthy hours of sleep during the school week and then catching up on their sleep on the weekends. Most teenagers during the school week, do not get the suggested amount of sleep. In fact, according to a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 80% of teenagers do not get the suggested amount of sleep of 9 hours on school nights (“School Start”). With changing bodies and minds, along with an increased amount of schoolwork and extracurricular activities, teenagers need more sleep than children of a younger age. Experts believe that moving back the start time of school for high school students will improve grades, test scores, and the overall health and personality of many students.

Since many schools start before 8am, students are falling short on their sleep. This can have serious consequences. A big safety concern is tired teens behind the wheel. Not enough sleep can create inattentive drivers. Also, fifty-five percent of teens with sleep loss turn out to be alcoholics.

Many teens dream of sleeping in each day, but it has nothing to do with laziness or lack of ambition. As children move into adolescence, their sleep cycles change. Adolescents naturally stay up later and get up later because of how their bodies release melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. Several studies show that teens cannot get out of this melatonin-induced sleep mode until at least 8:00 a.m., making later school start times desirable. Changing school start times has several benefits, but administrators must also consider the drawbacks of changing a familiar schedule.

According to “Wake Up Calls (Fast Facts)”, “Insufficient sleep in teens is associated with obesity, migraines, and immune system disruption with health risk behaviors including smoking, drinking, stimulant abuse, physical fighting, physical inactivity, depression, and suicidal tendencies” (McKibben 1). This quote shows that teens are getting very effected just from not getting enough sleep for school. According to “Wake Up Calls (Fast Facts)”, sleep deprived teens participate in more violent and property and crime than other teens (McKibben 1). This quote demonstrates that some teens don’t act as violent just from sleeping more. Finishing up, students have many benefits for their health and safety because of school starting earlier. Schools should start their school day earlier than 8 a.m. so they can get done with school earlier in the day. While starting school earlier sounds like a good idea, Jackson High School in Wyoming shifted its start time to 8:55 a.m., and the number of car crashes involving teenage drivers dropped by 70 percent as explained in “Wake Up Calls (Fast Facts)” (McKibben 1). This shows that students are not getting in as many bloody, deadly accidents because of school starting

This had them experimentally change their school start time from 8:00 in the morning to 8:25. According to Julie Boergers, Christopher Gable, and Judith Owens, the 25 minute delay in the school start times resulted in 29 more minutes of sleep per night in students. “ A modest (25 min) delay in school start time was associated with significant improvements in sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, mood, and caffeine use. These findings have important implications for public policy and add to research suggesting the health benefits of modifying school schedules to more closely align with adolescents’ circadian rhythms and sleep needs.” (1) This quote explains that having school start as little as 25 minutes later can improve the productivity and concentration in students. The students become more alert and are willing to put more effort into their

Young people who do not get enough sleep can become depressed, carry risks for drowsy driving, and lower performance level (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). There are many teenagers who are depressed all over the country. Pushing back the time school starts can lower the depression rate among teenagers. Also, not getting enough sleep can increase the urge to drink alcohol and use of caffeine and nicotine (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). Teens drinking alcohol can lead to many dangerous outcomes such as, death or being hospitalized. Parents should not have to deal with the risk behaviors of their kids caused by the insufficient amount of sleep from school hours. Drowsy driving has caused more than 100,000 car crashes per a year. This creates a hazardous environment to the surrounding community. It could possibly lead to the death other of others or destruction of the vehicle. Many teenagers have to drive to work or activities regardless of if they are tired or not (Backgrounder: Later School Start times). Therefore, to reduce depression and the risk behaviors of teenagers, school should start

According to Ruthann Richter, director media relations for medical school’s Office of Communication & Public Affairs "more than 87 percent of high school students in the United States get far less than the recommended weight to 10 hours, and the amount of time they sleep is decreasing - serious threat to their health, safety, and academic success." (1). Sleep quality is very important to teenagers or adolescent, not many of them are getting enough sleep that they should have. They need to have enough sleep, so their body can work efficiently to grow healthy. Schools in America have to adjust their opening time to match with sleep time children should have. Teens cannot adjust their sleep time because of the energy drinks consumed in their body the night before. This situation would quickly exhaust teens rather than give them the cognitive performance they wanted. "As we look at caffeine use for adolescents, one of the things that we're seeing is that it can actually become a gateway drug-- that you have your caffeine, you have it in the morning, but again, you have it in the afternoon, maybe in the evening, and then you can't sleep.”, Dr. Mary Sheedy Kurcinka acknowledged (1). Not having enough sleep could heavily affect teens emotion and behaviors. They could be angry easily, grumpy, sleepy, or having violent behaviors. At this age, they are processing information, and make judgments for

Do schools start too early? Many school boards believe schools should start later so the student can get more sleep. Sleep experts have proven that later school start times have some benefits, but these benefits are not enough to influence a later start time in schools.

As a student at Kingsland High School, I have frequently needed to wake up before six in the morning. There are seldom times where I have actually got the amount of sleep that is required for someone my age. The solution to mine and everyone else’s problem is to start the school day later in the day. Scientists have found that adolescents need, on average, nine to nine and a half hours of sleep per night, but two-thirds of teenagers reported sleeping less than seven hours a night. This causes multiple students to be sleep-deprived throughout the school day. This weakens the student's learning, memory, attention capability, and even impairs their health. Studies have shown a link between mental illnesses, a weakened immune system, and higher stress due to sleep-deprivation. Academics also are affected when schools start later in the morning. Teachers in schools that start early have noticed an improvement in the classroom when teenagers are more alert, less moody, and less tired as a result of a great night's sleep. Although there are several benefits of starting the school day later, frequently people disagree with the adjustments.

Students, for as long as I can remember, have always wanted to either not go to school or go to school at a later time. One of these is obviously not possible but what about the other? Could it be so difficult to arrange for classes to start later and if school districts did manage to do this, what would be the benefits? Many things contribute to different perspectives on school starting later such as sleeping schedules, the perceived benefits and peers influences. I believe that students do need more rest and time but school starting later isn’t going to solve this problem.

Everyday teens wake up to the agonizing scream of their 6 A.M. alarm clock telling them to wake up for school. That very moment each day, students struggle to function enough to keep their eyes open. After this excruciating experience, many make the statement, ‘School start later’. Research shows that these early starting school days cause adolescents to become sleep deprived, leaving them with impaired decision making. It is said that the brain is unable to reach its full function this early in the morning. With school starting later problems such as sleep deprivation will decrease as well as teen accident rates and an increase in school attendance records. With all this being said, many have done research experiments to support all of these

After reading both sides of the argument I have decided we should just leave school start time the same. Most students will probably think they want school to start at 9 am, but honestly i would disagree. There are many reasons I believe this way, some of them including sports,cost, and the fact that the students may not enjoy this time, but we are already used to this start time. Changing the school start time from 7:20 to 9:00 may have its pros but in my opinion the cons outweigh. Having a later school start time will hurt more than it helps.